Opera Scotland

Cavalleria Rusticana 1908Carl Rosa Opera Company

Read more about the opera Cavalleria Rusticana

The reviewer in the Scotsman (7 April) states "the scenery is fresh, there is living force in the presentation and artistically each opera offers an intensely intersting story briefly and effectively told in the music; yet stripped of the merely mechanical elaborations that cling to the older Italian operatic tradition.  The King's Theatre was well filled last night, and at the appropriate intervals the audience manifested its enjoyment of the performance by lavish applause and recalls...There have, in truth, been much better performances both of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.   But there is no connection in which comparisons are more odious  than in operatic performances; and the excellence and defects not only of the production as a whole, but of the individual artists, may best be weighed in the judicial balance upon their own merits.  In that sense the performance of last evening may be described as good but not great; yet taken with the work of the previous week it sustained the claim of the Carl Rosa Company to the patronage of the music-loving public.  Artistically the best part in Cavalleria Rusticana was the Turiddu of Mr Edward Davies.  Particularly in the final episode of the fatal duel he rose to a high level of vocal and dramatic art.  Miss Grace Nicoll as Santuzza was at times too weak in tone against the orchestra - which all through was a trifle too loud - but on the whole rendered the music with excellent vocal quality and full sense of the import of a trying and somewhat hysterical part.  Mr Dillon Shallard's Alfio was disappointing; neither his singing nor his delivery of the words being quite satisfactory.  Mr Shallard made a much finer appearance in Pagliacci..."

The company's 1908 tour included two weeks at the Glasgow Grand, one at the Alexandra, Greenock and finally two at Edinburgh King’s Theatre.

The full schedule was:-

Glasgow w/c 9 Mar: Mon Carmen; Tue Cav & Pag; Wed Trovatore; Thu Lohengrin; Fri Esmeralda; Sat m Fidelio; Sat e Rigoletto.

Glasgow w/c 16 Mar: Mon Don Giovanni; Tue Otello; Wed Bohemian Girl; Thu Faust; Fri Carmen; Sat m Tannhäuser; Sat e Trovatore.

Greenock w/c 23 Mar: Mon Carmen; Tue Tannhäuser; Wed Bohemian Girl; Thu Cav & Pag; Fri Esmeralda; Sat m Faust; Sat e Trovatore.

Edinburgh w/c 30 Mar: Mon Carmen; Tue Faust; Wed Lohengrin; Thu Don Giovanni; Fri Esmeralda; Sat m Tannhauser; Sat e Rigoletto.

Edinburgh w/c 6 Apr: Mon Cav & Pag; Tue Trovatore; Wed Bohemian Girl; Thu Marriage of Figaro; Fri Otello; Sat m Carmen; Sat e Maritana.

In summary: Carmen (5); Trovatore (4); Cav & Pag, Esmeralda, Bohemian Girl, Faust, Tannhäuser (3); Lohengrin, Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, Otello (2) and Fidelio, Marriage of Figaro, Maritana (1).

Thirty-five performances of thirteen operas plus the double bill of Cav and Pag.